In an attempt to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious “Swachh Bharat Mission”, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways is extensively installing bio-toilets on its coaches so that no human waste is discharged from train coaches on the tracks. According to Railway Ministry, in year 2016-2017, 6 Green corridors were made functional in order to demonstrate the advantage of fitment of bio-toilets. Moreover, the national transporter has commissioned 22 sections as Green corridors, which will be free from human waste discharge from trains. According to Railway Ministry, the decision to set up bio-toilets in the entire fleet of coaches across Indian Railways by the year 2021-22 has been advanced to 2019 in the Union Budget 2017-18. Therefore, once the work of fitting bio-toilets in all train coaches is completed, the entire network of Indian Railways will automatically become human waste discharge free from coaches.
Under Central Railway, two sections, Daund-Baramati section of 43 km and Chalisgaon-Dhule section of 56 km in Maharashtra have been commissioned. Under East Central Railway, 35 km long Sakari-Biraul section in Bihar has been commissioned. Two sections under Eastern Railway, 38 km long Madhupur-Giridih section in Jharkhand/West Bengal and 53 km long Bhagalpur-Banka section in Bihar have been commissioned. Two sections under North Eastern Railway, Bhojipura-Pilibhit section of 40 km in Uttar Pradesh and Chhapra-Thave of 109 km in Bihar have been commissioned. Under Northeast Frontier Railway, 82 km Chaparmukh-Silghat section, 84 km long Katakhal-Bairabi section in Assam and 61 km long Arunachal-Vangaichungpao section in Assam/Manipur have been commissioned.
Five sections under North Western Railway 119 km long Barmer-Munabao section, 41 km long Pipar Road-Bilara, 178 km long Hanumangarh-Sadalpur section, 77 km long Anupgarh-Suratgarh section in Rajasthan and 150 km long Sikar- Loharu section in Rajasthan/ Haryana have been commissioned. Four sections across Tamil Nadu under Southern Railway, 119 km long Rameswaram-Manamadurai section, 151 km long Trichy-Manamadurai (excluding TPJ) section, 48 km long Madurai- Manamadurai (excludingMDU) section, 67 km long Virudhnagar-Manamadurai (excluding VPT) section have been commissioned. Three sections across Gujarat under Western Railway, Okha-Kanalus Junction section of 140 km, Porbandar-Wansjaliya section of 33 km, Dhola Junction Mahuva (excluding Rajula Road-Rajula City) section of 127 km have been commissioned.
Meanwhile, even as Indian Railways looks to retrofit all old train coaches and new rakes with bio-toilets the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in a report in 2017 said that the funds allocated for the purpose remain underutilised.